Give It Away

I have been challenged lately to give away what I have been freely given. I believe it was Watchman Nee who said something along the lines of, "it's not getting life into a Christian that's hard, it's trying to get life out of them." I want to share with the world around me the great life and hope I have inside of me. There is something about always getting and never giving that causes a blockage in our life. I love being the recipient of a blessing, of a gift, of an impartation and so on but I believe there is even a greater joy in being the giver of these things to others.

Yesterday I was thinking about reasons why I don't share Christ with others as much as I'd like. It's not because I don't want to or that I don't think it would be a good thing, for me it boiled down to two things, I'm either afraid or I don't know how. And an illustration came to me while I was thinking on this: "If someone told me that they were in need of $5 and that they had been looking frantically all day for $5 and now it was almost night and if they didn't get the money they would have a horrible night. And I stand there with my hands in my pockets and feel the $5 bill that someone had gave me earlier and say, "well I have $5 that someone gave me earlier and here you go." Yes, most of us would give the person the money and its a simple illustration but what I'm getting at is that we come into contact with people everyday that need Jesus and we have Jesus living in us. So how do we go about that? What if it were as easy as giving that $5 bill? Would you share your faith more? I know I would.

I don't know of any perfect formula or step by step approach to reach the lost but I believe that God desires to reach the lost more than we even do. I love hearing stores about revival and cities being totally transformed by the Spirit of God. And it makes me hungry for that to happen to me and my city. So last Friday I hit the streets by my house in SE Portland to hand out gospel tracts and share Jesus with my community. I had quite the interesting night and found that yes, there are people who may be violently opposed ( I came close to getting punched in the face when I tried to hand a tract to a couple guys) but there are also others who are searching for hope and are very open to the real message of Jesus Christ. I had a great talk with a young man trying to quit alcohol, I shared my story about how God freed me from a life of addiction and then he asked if he could call me sometime. I had another talk with a guy that was into Wicca and after a while he admitted that he didn't know if he really believed in it after all because he knows some guy just made it up. And then just two nights ago I saw this guy again on the other side of town and got to talk to him again.

So I didn't get to pray with anyone or lead anybody to Christ but I believe it was a step in the right direction. I want God to give me a greater awareness of the souls around me and what His thoughts are for them. The word says to eagerly desire spiritual gifts especially prophesy so that is what I'm doing also. People tend to pay more attention if you call them out by name and tell them a secret of there heart. So I desire to prophesy because the Word says to and I believe it will help spread the good news of Jesus. And so will heeling's, last night I was dreaming about praying for someone to be healed in the middle of a busy street in Portland and how that would draw a crowd for sure. The more I think about it, God has so many ways to reach the lost and all we have to do is listen and obey Him.